My Poison Girl
by Todd's Pet
Summary: I've written a story about every one of me and Starry Waters' happy little band of wraith except Aurelian,so here it is - because we all know he didn't die in that explosion now, don't we?


My Poison Girl

(Aurelian's Alternative Ending)

He regains consciousness with this throat full of dust. He can't move. He twists his head slowly around to the side, then to the other side, but sees nothing that might give him any clue as to where he is.

He feels pain. He tries to heal himself but still feels the pain. He doesn't think he's bleeding and he fed recently, so he should be able to last long enough for his brothers to come for him.

He tries to still his mind and wait patiently.

oOo

He's lost track of time but is certain that at least a week has passed. He's still in pain but at least he's still alive. During the long, lonely days he manages to piece together what happened. He remembers coming down to an old mineshaft, where the humans led them into a trap... then darkness. Then he woke up here. He assumes he's still in the mineshaft after the explosion. Buried. Alive, but alone and in pain.

He can't locate the source of the pain; he thinks perhaps there may be several points of injury and can only assume he's unable to heal because he's weak – and getting weaker...

oOo

He's wakened by the noise of the rubble around him shifting. His heart leaps – his brothers are here! He squeezes his eyes shut and turns his head to protect himself from the newly disturbed dust and gravel.

When it finally settles and silence descends on him again, he opens his eyes and sees daylight through planks of wood across his face. It hurts his eyes and he instinctively brings his hand up to shield them. Suddenly it dawns on him – his hand is free!

He opens his eyes again, blinking until he gets used to the light. The rest of his body is still trapped, but at least now he can use his free arm to try to dig his way out. Then he hears a voice... a human voice.

oOo

The ground suddenly gives way beneath her. There is nothing she can do as she feels herself fall through thin air, but she curls up into a ball in the hope of being able to minimise injury. When she finally comes to a halt she's surrounded in rubble and covered in dust. She's aware of having sustained several cuts, but otherwise she can feel that she's fine.

Then she catches movement from the corner of her eye. She turns toward it and sees a wraith hand coming at her. She puts her arm up to protect herself and screams, "No!"

The wraith's arm pauses for a few seconds and then starts toward her again. "No!" she shouts again, "I have the virus! It will kill you!"

The wraith's arm stops and slumps back down. She follows the line from the hand, up his arm to his shoulder. She starts to dig.

oOo

"Why did you stop me?" the wraith asks, "You could have let me to try to feed on you then left me to die."

"I don't know," the woman replies, "No more than I know why I dug you out of the rubble instead of just walking away and leaving you to die."

The wraith tries to stand up as the human female pushes her shoulder under his arm and attempts to help him upright and take his weight. He makes to push her away but she tells him, "You have several broken bones and crush injuries. You can't walk unaided."

"Why are you helping me?" he asks her.

"Just shut up and let me help. Unless of course you actually want me to leave you to die?"

The wraith falls silent and lets the woman take the bulk of his weight as they stumble together across the fields.

oOo

He watches her prepare her potions and poultices. She's already splinted his broken legs and tended to the deep cuts in his arms and back. Without feeding he can't heal himself any quicker and this human is poison to him.

And yet she helps him. Perplexed he asks her, "What is your name, human?"

"Deborah. What's yours?"

"Wraith do not need names."

"I can hardly just call you 'wraith'. How do you identify each other?"

"By thought."

"Ah, wraith telepathy," she muses, "Well, I'm not telepathic, more's the pity, so I'll need to call you something while you're here."

She takes bottles and jars from her dresser, picks up a mixing bowl from beside her sink and turns to her big oak table. With her elbows she clears the books from one end of her table to put her bottles down. One book slides off the end and she goes to pick it up. It's a book of ancient emperors and has fallen open at the page for Aurelian.

Standing up she says, "That's what I'll call you, then." She pauses, smiles at his puzzled frown, then adds, "Okay, maybe Aurel for short."

oOo

Over several days she marvels at how quickly his broken bones are healing, while he marvels over how well she tends to his injuries and how her potions seem to strengthen him even without feeding.

As they wait for time to heal his legs so he can walk, she reads to him from her books, answers his questions about what she reads to him, and shows him how to mix her potions, explaining patiently where to find and identify the herbs she uses and even revealing her secret ingredients.

But in spite of her ministrations, he is still severely depleted and will need to feed eventually. She seems to be the only human left in the neighbourhood – she says the original villagers fled the area and relocated far, far away – so somehow he will have to find a way to get back to his hive.

oOo

"I overheard one of your... your brothers? They said your Commander had been murdered by one of the Lanteans who was infected and the territorial wars between hives is escalating. They assumed there were no survivors of the explosion and left, but they did say they would return soon. That's why the villagers left. So I suppose all you have to do is wait for them to come back."

"I don't know how long that will be and I will need to feed soon."

She shrugs, unable to tell him any more.

"Why do you stay?" Aurel asks her, "Aren't you afraid?"

"I told you. If you try to feed on me you'll die."

"But..."

"Yes, I know, they were rounding up those with the Hoffan virus, but they didn't know about me, no one did."

"I do now."

oOo

The hunger burns slowly in the background, bearable but constantly there. When she goes out to collect her herbs and food and he's alone it breaks into his thoughts and he gets agitated.

But when she's here watching her go about her chores seems to sooth him. Her hair fascinates him; dark and shining in abundant curls that tumble just past her shoulders.

She brings a bowl full of steaming golden liquid across to where he sits – he has been able to move from lying in her bed to sitting in her chair – and offers it to him. "Drink this, it will speed your healing."

He takes it from her and watches her eyes intently as he drinks the bitter brew.

"This must be strange for you," she says gently. He questions her with his eyes. "Being with a human who is not afraid of you," she explains, "And having to trust me!" She smiles and the golden highlights in her hazel eyes sparkle, matching the gold of his eyes.

"Somehow it seems easy to trust you," he says.

"Will you let me try something then?" she asks him hesitantly.

He hands the bowl back to her and she puts it on the dresser, takes both his hands in hers and takes several deep breaths.

oOo

"What did you do?" Aurel asks, astounded. "I can barely feel the hunger now but it's been weeks since I last fed."

"A kind of spiritual healing," she says. He looks at her in that questioning way she's starting to get used to. "I channel cosmic energy for my healing herbs and crystals," she explains. "I thought that since wraith feed on energy perhaps if I channelled it into you instead of my crystals, then it might help."

"It did," he says, "Although I don't know why you wish to help me."

"Don't you?" she says and reaches out to draw her fingers through his long, thick hair.

He's intensely aware of the nearness of her. His eyes widen in surprise when she presses her lips against the soft skin of his neck. His pulse quickens and he instinctively reaches for her, holding her in his arms and letting his cheek rest against her soft hair.

He hasn't done this for a very long time and even then it was with a frightened girl. This woman actually wants him and he revels in the warmth and urgency of her desire.

oOo

He smiles in the darkness and pulls her closer to him. She smells good, but it only reminds him how hungry he is and that he'll have to leave, and leave soon. But if he calls a hive here and they find her they will want to experiment on her and it's unlikely she'd survive it.

Humans are so fragile and their lives so fleeting. He wonders why some of his brothers allow themselves to become emotionally attached to their human worshippers, knowing they'll lose them so soon. Keeping worshippers alive with the gift is relatively commonplace, but even then they only last a few hundred years.

She stirs in her sleep and murmurs. He kisses her forehead and suddenly understands why they do it, why they want to keep one particular human alive for as long as possible.

He drifts off to sleep trying to think of ways to stay with her, but he knows that won't be possible. So at the very least he must find a way to get off this planet without putting her life at risk.

oOo

His decision is made for him when he wakes with a start early in the morning. She's not there! Mild panic starts to bubble in his gut and he leaps from her bed and rushes outside, looking in every direction. _Please, don't let my brothers find her first!_

He can sense the hive ship in orbit. He must find her before they do. Suddenly he spots her on the edge of the forest, picking herbs and wild flowers.

"Quickly! I must hide you!" he hisses. He grabs her and almost picks her up in his hurry to move her along.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she gasps.

"They're here!"

She stops and looks at him sadly. "You're leaving then?"

"I must, you know that..." He can see from her face that she accepts it must be, even though he knows she wishes he could stay every bit as much as he wishes it himself.

"I will put them off looking for you," he tells her. "Promise me you'll stay hidden until we leave – you will hear the darts." She hesitates and touches his face. "Promise me," he repeats.

"I promise," she says and she watches as he walks away without turning back, understanding that if he did, he might not be able to leave her.

oOo

Three of his brothers materialise beneath the darts as they buzz overhead. He rushes across the field to join them, filling them in with a brief summary of how he dug himself out of the collapsed mine shaft but carefully shielding any thought or image of her from his mind.

"We got very little of use from the infected ones we took before they died," one of the other wraith tells him. "Did you come across any others while you were here?"

"No one," he replies, "I'm extremely hungry and searched long and hard, but the entire village has fled."

One of his brothers claps him heartily on the back. "Let's get you back to the hive for a decent meal, then!"

The darts circle around to return for them. Aurelian is the last to leave and as he stands waiting to be beamed up, he catches one last glimpse of her and smiles.

THE END


End file.
